Capture the Real Sound of Your Favorite Amps

Many modeling amps offer the ability to fit an army of amp models in one unit, but the Kemper Profiler Amplifier can actually inherit the sound of each of your amps -- all you need to start creating your own "profiles" is a microphone and guitar cable. With an already robust lineup of rig models and effects and the ability to program rigs for easy live access, the Kemper Profiler offers relief to amp-laden tone aficionados.

Highly Detailed Modeling

To build the Profiler amp, Kemper has taken much into account, developing a sophisticated modeling method that considers the interaction between tubes and circuits, and the character of individual gain stages. The result is accurate amp modeling that can even separately distinguish the characteristics of the cabinet used. Players will find similar attention to detail given to the Kemper Profiler's built-in stompbox models, many of which are based on sought-after pedals.

Find Your Sound, Then Get Ready for the Stage

The Kemper's Browser mode is where you'll find the library of profiles and sounds available on the amp. Sort through options of pre-loaded rigs, or mix and match to create your own custom lineup.

If you want more sounds, the Archive function connects the amp to an online database of user-created profiles ready for you to download and play through your amp. Of course, you can also share your own custom creations through the same network.

All of these sonic possibilities wouldn't mean much if you had to fumble through hundreds of options and waste time twisting knobs on stage. The amp's Perform mode gives you control to set up your ideal sounds for any given gig and shift through them on the fly.

All Your Amps in One Place

Got a vintage amp collection? Kemper's profiling technology gives you the ability to recreate the sound of your favorite amps by connecting any amp to the Profiler, placing a mic on the amp you wish to profile, and letting the Kemper send test signals back and forth. The microphone picks up the amp's test signals -- you don't even have to play guitar! In about a minute, you'll have a replica of the profiled amp available at any time at the turn of a knob. You can profile clean and distorted channels separately and further tweak your profiled amp to suit your tastes -- effectively modifing your amp without even touching a screwdriver.

Profiling eliminates the need for bringing multiple amps to gigs, giving you all the sounds you already own in one place. You don't have to lust over your friend's classic tube combo anymore -- just ask them to profile it, and you can take the sound anywhere.

Features:

- Profiling ability lets you replicate any amp you can plug in and mic
- Tweak the sound of your own amps without hardware mods
- Stompbox effects including modeled versions of famous overdrive, chorus, delay and other effects
- Stack section allows you to choose amp profile, equalizer, and cabinet
- Amp controls include bass, middle, treble, presence, master volume, and neutral gain control
- Quickly search through presets in browser mode
- Program the sounds you need for any gig in perform mode
- Download user-created rigs and upload your own

Get all your guitar amps accurately recreated and made available in one place with the Kemper Profiler Amplifier.

Product Description

The Kemper Profiler Amplifier is a groundbreaking concept for guitar amplification using digital technology. They believe that every guitar player should be able to transfer his personal signature sound into a single lunchbox-format amplifier.

The Kemper Profiler Amplifier digitally captures the sonic fingerprint of virtually any guitar amp. The days of struggling to reproduce that magic mic position in front of the speaker cabinet are over. Now you can have a profile for every combination of tones and settings your tube amp setup provides. The Kemper Profiler Amplifier offers a convenient and accurate A/B comparison mode so you can be sure that all your profiles are just like the original amp. If you have used some great-sounding, well-maintained vintage tube amps in the studio, you can create profiles from these amps to use anywhere you like, at any time. Profiles can be spiced up with the Kemper Profiler Amplifier's included professional quality effects; you can save variations with alternative amp settings, and you can exchange the cabinet simulation within a Profile at any time.

Do you plan on touring? Simply dial up your Profiles from the studio session when you play live. Instead of having to risk bringing a truckload of rare and fragile vintage amps to the gig to get your sound, now you can profile your amps before the tour, and just bring the Kemper Profiler Amplifier with you on the road! The Kemper Profiler Amplifier gives you what generations of guitar players have been waiting for: the ability to have your sound anytime, anywhere.

What is Profiling?

"Profiling" is what they have named their proprietary technology that captures the sound and feel of a specific tube amplifier. In other words, the Kemper Profiler Amplifier doesn't simply give you a list of static digital amplifier reproductions. Instead, profiling creates a vivid, living, dynamic and multi-dimensional image of your existing tube amp.

Profiling is as simple as plugging your tube amp into the Kemper Profiling Amplifier and pressing 'record.' Just insert the Kemper Profiler amplifier into the recording chain and it will do its magic. Test signals will be sent from the Kemper Profiler Amplifier into your tube amp and recorded by the microphone in front of your cabinet.

You don't even have to play your guitar. After less than a minute the Kemper Profiler Amplifier acquires the sonic DNA of your tube amp and offers you the resulting custom profile. You can then use the A/B comparison mode to compare original tube amp sound with the profiled sound. This gives you a fast and convenient way to make final tweaks to the profile to get it exactly right.

How does the profiling technique compare to classic modeling?

It took them several years of research and development to have the Profiling algorithm up and running. This chapter might be of interest for the more technically-minded amongst you.

Initially, they focussed the attention on existing and well-documented techniques, most of which fall under the heading "Dynamic Convolution". Even though these approaches seemed very promising at first glance, and certainly useful for recreating simple, soft distortion circuits, they were by no means adequate for complex guitar amplifiers with heavy distortion. Reality has shown that no other company has managed to create a profiling amp by these methods so far.

Other well-known modeling methods, such as a distortion devices framed by a pre- and post-equalizer, have been used in modeling amps of the first generation. They deliver reasonable results, but the sound still lacks complexity, depth and feel; furthermore, these methods don't qualify for an automated profiling procedure.

So, they had to go much deeper and, in the process, developed their own technology. A tube amp has dozens of dimensions in sound; consequently, the equation of the profiling algorithm needed dozens of variables to exactly recreate the sound and feel of the original amp.

They spent considerable time researching the dynamic behavior of the tube. It was also necessary to study the interactions between the tube and surrounding circuits, which become very complex when the tube starts to distort. They were lucky to find a way to extract this exact tube behavior by analyzing the intermodulation products of crossing sine sweeps. The relation between the intermodulations and the unprocessed sine sweeps tells the full story about the distortion shape and dynamic of the tube and the behavior of the surrounding circuit. It can even deliver the information about several distortion stages in a row, so long as there is only one stage significantly distorting. This measurement is independent of the frequency response of the amplifier. Once the distorting part has been analyzed, it can be separated from the transfer function. The frequency response of the cabinet is then easy to determine and separate.

Aside from the ease of profiling the whole amp, there is another good reason not to analyze the amp part by part: they capture the sound of every component at the place where it belongs, including all interactions between the components.

Amp Controls

The Kemper Profiler Amplifier includes the standard Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble and Presence controls that you would expect from an guitar amplifier. However, in contrast to many vintage amps, they have kept the gain control neutral, so you are able to find the sweet spot of your amp, and run this optimal sound at any gain level.

The gain control ranges over 80dB and features an automatic volume compensation for clean settings.

Now, imagine if you could change the sonic character of a profile way beyond what's possible with the amp itself.. What if you could change the sonic age of the amp, or the bite of the pick? What if you could modify the power supply of your profiled amp in order to benefit from power sagging or be larger than life? With the Kemper Profiler Amplifier, you can! They allow you to dynamically adjust key aspects of your favorite amps which would otherwise be impossible or require hardware modifications. You can do anything from minor tweaks, such as making your Marshall Bluesbreaker profile sound a bit more vintage, to more radical changes such as adding some modern high gain chunk to your vintage Fender Bassman.

The Stack

The Amplifier Section

The Amplifier section is the heart of the Kemper Profiler Amplifier. The sound of the amplifier is based on the profile loaded into the rig. A great selection of intuitive and powerful macro parameters empowers you to perform modifications which are impossible with an traditional hardware amplifier.

Many things become possible from changing the age of the virtual hardware to the response to your play. You gain direct access to tube settings, such as the tube symmetry.

The Equalizer Section

The Kemper Profiler Amplifier is equipped with a traditional bass / mid / treble / presence equalizer similar to what you already know and love from many amp heads. They found that many equalizers used in the tone stack section of more or less famous amplifiers lack of grip and blur your sound in an unnecessary fashion.

That's why they've decided to go with their own, original design which is based on a traditional tone stack but delivers what you expect from a modern pro-grade equalizer.

The Cabinet Section

The Kemper Profiler Amplifier captures the cabinet as a part of a profile. Thanks to digital alchemy they can distinguish in between the cabinet and the amp head within a profile and therefore enable you to mix and match both in which ever way you like. Imagine you can exchange cabinets freely in between amps, even though those amps were combo amps before. You can even warp cabinets from "tiny as a cigarette box" to "larger than life" with one parameter.

The Effects

The Stomp Boxes

The Kemper Profiler Amplifier offers 4 independent stomp effects slots which can host a full arsenal of stomp box effects including painstakingly modeled famous overdrive and distortion stomp boxes, compressor, reverb, several delays and LoFi algorithms, and a beautiful rotary speaker emulation.

They've also created accurate models of classic retro modulation effects such as a variety of chorus, phaser and flanger pedals. In the creative department are sonic decimators such as bit- and sample-rate reducers and a ring shifter, among many others. All stomp effects can be edited and copied conveniently between presets. And for your overview and convenience, they use color coded LEDs indicating which type of stomp has been used per slot.

Looping In and Out External Effects

The Kemper Profiler Amplifier includes an external effects loop which you can patch in anywhere among the virtual stomps boxes. The location and other details can be stored per rig. The monitor outputs also can serve as a pure analog buffer amp for re-amping.

The Master Section

The master effects section features reverb, delay and additional slots for stomp boxes and studio effects to refine your amplifier's tone. The six knobs on the front panel offer convenient access to the most important settings. The reverb section features a dense and lively reverb algorithm which won't mask the original signal. The delay section features several tape and stereo delay algorithms which can be synched to MIDI clock.

They include a single-knob smart noise gate on the front panel that is completely transparent. It's faster than any other noise gate they have experienced and doesn't need an adjustment of the release time. Damping a string results in immediate silence.

The Output Stage

The Kemper Profiler Amplifier features two independent main outputs which can be used in multiple ways. The mains feature a balanced studio level connection and a parallel pair or TSRs. The monitor output optionally provides the amplifier's sound without the cabinet. This proves beneficial for musicians with an existing power amp / cabinet on stage.

Ground Lifts

In order to seamlessly integrate the Kemper Profiler Amplifier into an existing studio and live sound environment, they've included several ground lifts to allow you to easily deal with possible hum and grounding problems.

Manage your performance in style

Browse Rigs and Perform

The Kemper Profiler Amplifier comes with two play modes. The "Browser" mode assists you in quickly finding the right rig thanks to its sophisticated sort and search functions. The "Perform" mode arranges your rigs according to the set list you'll play tonight. Perform mode focuses on overview - think of a Performance like a lead sheet which allows you to collect, order and name all the rigs you need for a certain song.

In both modes the bright LCD display gives you a full overview of the chosen rig. The six rotary encoders below the display become controllers for the gain, EQ, and master volume.

The Archive

The Kemper Profiler Amplifier makes it easy for you to share your personal library with other users. Rigs and Profiles are small files which include your name and numerous other details which can be used to filter and search for a specific rig. You can then exchange profiles either through the official Kemper-Amplifier website profile exchange, emails, or other online forums and services. The Profiler is equipped with intuitive search and filter functions allowing you to maintain a great overview of the growing library of custom profiles and rigs from around the globe.

Editing with a breeze

Analog endless potentiometers

The analogue endless potentiometers offer the best of both worlds. They provide the smooth feel and high resolution of an analog pot, yet are as intuitive to use as a rotary encoder. Need to increase a value? Simply turn the knob to the right - no need to worry about the current position. You have precise control over your sound, yet can still make extreme value changes with a single rotation. In other words, those are engineered for musicians, not for technicians.

LED color code

The status lights of the stomp boxes and effects on the front panel can change their color depending on the category of effect chosen. For instance, distortion effects are red, compressors are represented by a turquoise LED. This little details enhances your overview greatly. You can literally just look at the Profiler without reading the display and you already know which stomp boxes shape the sound.

Undo

When designing sounds, you often move one step forward and two step back again. As one idea triggers the next one you refine your original idea and change your mind. The Kemper Profiler Amp offers multiple undo and redo steps so you can always return to a previous stage. It also introduces the concept of snapshots.

Snapshots are backups of entire rigs and those are automatically generated for everything that would be lost otherwise. For instance, a snapshot is created when you store over an existing rig. This way you can go back to what you've overwritten earlier on at any point in time.

The Lock Button

Lock allows you to secure a certain aspect of a rig against overwriting. Here's an example: You're planning to play a lick with a specific tempo sync'ed delay. You're happy with the delay settings but unsure about the amp and cabinet you're using.

There are many applications for the Lock function:
Keep the amp section unchanged while browsing through the effect settings of the presets. Or the opposite: Keep the effects while browsing through the amp settings of the presets. Lock a compressor stomp in the stomp section for every preset, as long as you want. Make individual settings (gain, noisegate) for two or three guitars in the input section, that remain unchanged when you change presets. Switch off delay and reverb on every preset for a day in a studio, where you might use outboard equipment.

Copy and Past are designed to copy stomp boxes in between slots or rigs. In fact you can pretty much copy everything between every logical destination -it doesn't matter if it's a stomp box, a rig or a performance.

zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us.
"The Revolutionary Kemper Profiling Amplifier"

Overall:
I was skeptical of the claims of and about the Kemper Profiling Amp, and ordered the box from zZounds, knowing I could depend upon their return policy, had I bee disappointed. To my amazement, the Kemper has proved to be everything and more than it claims to be. There are numerous reviews to be found, and the positive things they say are all well-deserved. This is one revolutionary, well-thought out, and well-implemented piece of gear.

Style of Music: Wide range of music in Christian, Classic Rock, and Progressive Rock genres.

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zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us.
"1000+ Amps in a Lunch Box"

Overall:
When you plug in and play great profiles (Amp Factory are great) you won't for a second think you are playing anything but a tube amp.
Record in minutes. Setup and grab the soul of your own amp into this device as a "rig" through a process called "profiling". Amazing.
Or get the word done by others, free or bought. Amazing.
You can play in headphones, play through your monitors, gig live, etc.
Muse tours with 2 of them.
The Interface is easy as pie to use and tweak. Very portable. You will sell most or all of your amps after pofiling them. I did. Cured me of my GAS.

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this productBuy it, and if it isn't just right for you, return it!

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